The ubiquity of smartphones, new payment technology platforms, and ease of use have clearly caught the eye of many technology innovators and consumers. But why is this the year that cashless payments will go mainstream?

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Now With 2 Million Advertisers, Facebook Is Gaining a Foothold With Small Businesses (AdWeek)… Google Search Tests “Chat” Button In Local Business Box (TechCrunch)… GoDaddy Takes Another Step To IPO (USA Today)…

The company offers retailers a chance to link the mountain of data, available about consumers online, to the growing, but relatively opaque, credit card data collected by retailers in stores. Marc Freed-Finnegan, the company’s chief executive, spoke to Street Fight recently about the shift toward a more intelligent brick-and-mortar retail experience…

A new study from Thrive Analytics shows that the sluggish growth of mobile wallet initiatives is largely a product — not a marketing — problem. Among the 32% of respondents who used a wallet app, usage was, for the most part, intermittent…

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yahoo Launches Yelp Help in Search to Better Battle Google: Here’s What It Looks Like (Recode)… New Data Suggests “Showrooming” on Amazon Might Not be Killing Physical Retail After All (Pando)… Google Tests Desktop-to-Mobile Retargeting With Brand Data (AdAge)…

Near field communication (NFC), the much-maligned technology that once was held as the future of mobile payments, may not be dead yet. Richard Char, global head of digital networks and merchant Services at Citi, believes that two emerging trends will turn the tide for NFC, dissolving many of the infrastructural barriers that have mired its growth…

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… PayPal, Aiming For Retail Ubiquity, Adds One More Way To Pay (ReadWrite)… Encouraging the Reviewers, Honestly (New York Times)… Google Moving Staff From Search To Its Payments Business In A New Push For Google Wallet (Business Insider)…